The article analyses several concepts of sustainable development, focusing on the following dimensions: the political-administrative model, the role of the State, and the democratic potential of these approaches. First, the paper analyses those approaches that consider the market as the fundamental regulative force of development (market approach of economic liberalism). Second, it tackles approaches that consider the State and its regulatory and planning institutions indispensable instruments to guarantee the prevalence of the common good in developing processes (ecological-technocratic planning approach). Finally, it examines conceptions that highlight the necessity of an extended political mobilisation and an enhanced involvement of the population and civil society organisations in the search for a sustainable mode of development (political approach of democratic participation). At the end, the paper discusses the implications of these approaches for local management and suggests some basic elements in the search for a democratic management model of sustainable urban development.
sustainable development; local management; democracy